"We definitely...almost double, you know, what we would normally do." So says Michael Lewinsky, a food manager at Leonardo's in Gainesville.
He says Leonardo's best weekend is the time Fest is in town. More so than football games? Oh yes, he says.
"With football games, you know there's gonna be a period when you're going to get a break and you can estimate when you're going to get rushes and about what's gonna happen, but during Fest, it's pretty much the door's being held open until the end of the night when we close."
And it's not just restaurants and bars benefiting from Fest's influx of musicians and music lovers. Music outlets like Hear Again are also stocking up with extra CD's and DVD's just to accommodate the rush of people.
Andrew Schaer is the owner of Hear Again, and he says "we brought in a whole lot of extra inventory for the week cause we figured we were gonna need it and we were right. It ended up we've been hit hard in a good way and we appreciate that and we appreciate Fest and all the people who come here and do that."
Like Hear Again, Maude's Cafe downtown is catering to the Fest fans, offering a dollar off discount for all who have Fest wristbands. Most businesses downtown seem to agree with Michael Lewinsky:
"It could be good for the town if people would just have a little patience, cause they're people from all over the world, Canada, London, Europe, all staying right there, bringing lots of money to this town."
And that makes those wearing the Fest wristband pretty popular in Gainesville.